NORTH MUSKEGON, MI – The search for the man who allegedly grabbed a woman running on a North Muskegon trail earlier this week continued Thursday, May 1, and a sketch was being developed, police said.

A 20-year-old woman was running alone at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve in the 1900 block of Lake Avenue around 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, when she was grabbed from behind by an unknown man.

The victim managed to break free and run to safety, but the alleged assailant remains at large.

As of Thursday afternoon, North Muskegon Police Chief Tom Korabik said there hadn’t been any big breaks in the case and the victim was going to work with a composite sketch artist for police.

Korabik said he hopes the sketch, which will be released to the public when it's complete, will result in some useful information for police to go on.

“We got one person who called in regards to it, but we didn’t really get anything,” he said.

Korabik said by the time the woman ran back to her car and called police there was probably about a 15 minute delay, so the suspect had plenty of time to get out of the immediate area.

“He took off running after the incident and she has no idea where the guy went,” he said.

Incidents like Tuesday’s are incredibly rare in Muskegon County, but Korabik said police do believe the incident on the trail actually occurred.

“We believe it happened. But we haven’t really had that many issues down there. You just don’t know what the guy’s intent was. We have no idea where he was going with this,” he said.

The victim, who received a small scratch on her face as a result of the incident, gave a detailed description of the man to police.

He’s described as a white man in his late 20s to early 30s, about 5 foot 6 inches tall with a thin build. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants and had short, shaggy dark hair, police said.

The suspect didn’t say anything during the grabbing incident, the chief said.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the North Muskegon Police at 231-744-4313 or call-231-72-CRIME or text anonymously to MKGTIP with message of 274637.